Opening Day

I love baseball season. It's not just the game itself. It's the fact that opening day feels like the official start to Spring. It's getting warmer outside. The sun's still shining at crazy hours like 7pm. It's just great.

Have you ever been to a Major League Baseball game? I've been to a few. My first time was an Orioles game in Baltimore. I remember walking into Camden Yards and thinking how small the field seemed. There was nothing really special about the game itself that day. Just having that first memory of a professional baseball game is enough. That week, my dad and I followed up that game with a trip to see the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Phillies. Five games in five days. I'll never do it again, but it was a lot of fun.

I've also seen the Atlanta Braves play down at Turner Field. This one's about a girl. Couldn't have this "single guy" entry and not have something about a girl, right? It was just before my senior year of college and I had had a yen for this girl for awhile. I called her up in mid-June and asked about the possibility of a friend and myself staying with her on the way to Atlanta, 'cause we were going to see a Braves game. I never had any intention of anyone else going, this was manipulation first class. She said we could stay, as long as she got to go too. See, she's a huge Braves fan. Knowing this, I used it to my advantage. "Sorry, just have the two tickets... Oh no, Dean Dan can't go... hmm... who can take his ticket?" I baited the hook. And she bit.

So I drove down and stayed with her family. The next morning, we left bright and early. A three hour car ride with this girl that I was crazy about. Next was a three hour baseball game in the hot Atlanta sun. And then a three hour return trip to her house. The ride back was very uncomfortable. Nothing tense between us... I was just crispy from the exposure to the sun. I had every intention of telling her how I felt about her. That I thought of her in a "more than friends" kind of way. But it never happened. I chickened out as usual. She eventually figured it out and after the obligatory six month awkward period, we remained friends. Do I look back fondly on that uneventful baseball game? Absolutely. Because regardless of whether or not my feelings for her were ever reciprocated, I got to spend an amazing day with an amazing girl, who pretty much embodies everything I ever thought I wanted in a woman. She's like the metaphor for all the women who would never go out with me in college.

Bottom line: I like baseball.